Banished

A lot of genres have had a resurgence over the past five years, but none more successfully than management games. There are now more ways to direct trains, lay conveyor belts, coral visitors and profit, profit, profit than you could play in a lifetime. The question is: which of these famous timesinks is worth your time, and which of the whipsmart new hires can compete…

Tagged with Bestest Bests, feature, management games, RPS Recommended, rps-ultromegafeature, Banished, Cities: Skylines, Dungeon Keeper, Dwarf Fortress, Evil Genius, Factorio, Frostpunk, Planet Coaster, Prison Architect, RimWorld, Stardew Valley, Startopia, Surviving Mars, The Sims 2, Tropico 5, Two Point Hospital, Zeus: Master of Olympus.

My body betrayed me last month, trapping me in my bed when it wasn’t sending me rushing to my poor, overworked loo. I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t work and so I turned to management games to take my mind off the virus squatting inside me. Juggling budgets, disasters and production chains might not sound particularly relaxing, but there’s also a swathe of low-pressure sims that…

Tagged with feature, Banished, Cities: Skylines, Frostpunk, Megaquarium, Parkasaurus, Planet Coaster, Reigns, Reigns: Game of Thrones, Reigns: Her Majesty, Stardew Valley, Surviving Mars.

Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time. I got my arse kicked by the readership when I reviewed Banished and made it clear I didn't enjoy myself at all. I don't mind. I'm glad.

Tagged with feature, Have You Played, Banished.

Every Moday we send Brendan to plough the fields of early access and see if anything nutritious grows. This week he mismanages a settlement of brow-beaten farm workers in Forest Village [official site], a placid spin-off from Life Is Feudal’s medieval sandbox. The village of Scallyminster lies in ruins. I’d like to think I did everything in my power to help the last citizens of…

Tagged with feature, Forest Village, Life is Feudal, Mindillusion, Premature Evaluation, Banished, Life Is Feudal: Forest Village.

Nothing says “weekend” like an afternoon spent watching a Malcolm in the Middle rerun marathon. It’s genuinely better than I remembered, but that may hold true for anything that has been viewed in order. Between you and me, though, the sitcom is best viewed as a preview to Breaking Bad. So many gas masks. So much angst. So many narrative possibilities. Anyway, pickings remain slim…

Tagged with features, The RPS Bargain Bucket, Banished, Massive Chalice, The Wolf Among Us.